The City of Whitehorse is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and an estimated residential population of 183,462 as of June 2024.
History The City of Whitehorse was created in December 1994 following the amalgamation of the City of Box Hill and the City of Nunawading, which shared a boundary along Middleborough Road. Earlier plans to form a smaller City of Whitehorse by merging the City of Box Hill and the eastern part of the City of Camberwell were not followed through.
The municipality derives its name and logo from The White Horse Hotel, a popular coaching inn located on the corner of Elgar Road and Whitehorse Road. After its demolition in 1933, the Council acquired the horse and porch from the hotel, and they were erected on Whitehorse Road. In 1986, the monument was relocated to Box Hill Town Hall and a replica was erected in its place.
Council The City of Whitehorse is divided into eleven wards: Cootamundra, Eley, Elgar, Kingsley, Lake, Mahoneys, Simpson, Sparks, Terrara, Walker and Wattle. One Councillor is elected to represent each ward, every four years. Council elections are conducted by postal voting and votes are counted using preferential voting. Voting is compulsory for residents who are on the electoral roll for state elections, but voters aged 70 years or over are not obliged to vote at local council elections. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are elected by the Councillors to serve as the principal ambassador for the city for a twelve-month term.
The current council was elected in November 2024, and its composition is:
PartyCouncillors Independent 7 Independent Liberal 2 Independent Labor 2Total 11
+WardPartyCouncillorNotesCootamundra Independent LaborKieran SimpsonDeputy Mayor Eley IndependentDaniel GriffithsElgar IndependentBlair BarkerKingsley Independent LiberalKirsten LangfordMayor Lake Independent LaborHayley WellerMahoneys IndependentJason MartinSimpson IndependentPrue CuttsSparks IndependentPeter AllanTerrara IndependentJarrod GunnWalker IndependentBen StennettWattle Independent LiberalAndrew Davenport
Past councillors 2000−2020 (multi-member wards) Whitehorse comprised five two-member wards until 2020, when they were replaced by single-member wards.
YearCentralElgarMorackRiversdaleSpringfieldCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillorCouncillor 2000 Jessie McCallum (Ind) Peter Allan (Ind) Bernie Millane (Ind) Robert Chong (Ind) Bill Bowie (Ind) Noel Spurr (Ind) Helen Buckingham (Ind) Richard Anderson (Ind) Chris Aubrey (Ind) Kaele Way (Ind) 2003 George Droutsas (Ind) Sharon Ellis (Ind) John Koutras (Ind) Sharon Patridge (Ind) 2004 Haley Weller (Ind) 2005 Helen Harris (Ind) Pauline Richards (Labor) 2006 Ben Stennett (Ind) 2008 Andrew Munroe (Liberal) Bill Pemberton (Ind) Mark Lane (Liberal) Raylene Carr (Ind) Phillip Daw (Ind) 2012 Denise Massoud (Liberal) Bill Bennett (Ind) Andrew Davenport (Liberal) 2016 Tanya Tescher (Liberal) Tina Liu (Ind) Prue Cutts (Ind) 2017 Blair Barker (Liberal)
Townships and localities The 2021 Census counted 169,346 residents in the City of Whitehorse, up from 162,078 in the 2016 Census.
Population Locality 2016 2021 ^ 20,406 21,302 13,940 14,478 7,436 7,627 10,793 10,939 11,395 14,353 11,874 12,337 8,434 8,491 ^ 15,019 15,147 10,273 10,675 10,626 10,780 16,148 16,795 ^ 4,840 4,948 5,503 5,609 ^ 11,876 12,413 ^ 13,605 13,655 ^ 10,442 10,993 11,678 11,954
^ - Territory divided with another LGA
Major thoroughfares
Blackburn Road (State Route 13) Boronia Road (State Route 36) Burwood Highway (State Route 26) Canterbury Road (State Route 32) Elgar Road (B970) Eastern Freeway (M3) Highbury Road Maroondah Highway (Whitehorse Road) (State Route 34) Middleborough Road (State Route 23) Mitcham Road (State Route 36) Riversdale Road (State Route 20) Springvale Road (State Route 40) Station Street (State Route 47) Surrey Road (State Route 13) Warrigal Road (State Route 15)
Culture
Neighbours is filmed in Vermont South; Pin Oak Court is the real cul-de-sac that has doubled for Ramsay Street since 1985. All of the houses featured in the show are real and the residents allow Neighbours to shoot external scenes in their front and back yards and on occasions, in their garages. Owing to its association with the show, Pin Oak Court is popular with tourists. Interior scenes were filmed at Global Television studios in the adjacent suburb of Forest Hill.
Box Hill has variously supported an eponymous brass band since 1889.
Sister city relations
On 12 May 1971, the City of Box Hill established a sister city relationship with Matsudo, in Chiba, Japan. In December 1994, when Box Hill amalgamated with Nunawading, the City of Whitehorse re-affirmed its relationship with Matsudo.
In April 2005, the City of Whitehorse signed a Memorandum of Friendship and Understanding with Shaoxing, in Zhejiang, China. The Memorandum of Friendship and Understanding aims to foster international liaisons and links and facilitate the exchange of information and personal visits, as well as to strengthen economic, tourism and educational connections between the two cities through sharing knowledge and cultural understanding.
Libraries
Libraries in the City of Whitehorse are operated by Whitehorse Manningham Libraries, which also has branches in the City of Manningham.
The branches in Whitehorse include: Blackburn Library – Located at Cnr Blackburn and Central Roads, Blackburn. Box Hill Library – Located at 1040 Maroondah Highway, Box Hill. Nunawading Library – Located at 379 Maroondah Highway, Nunawading. Vermont South Library – Located at Pavey Place, Vermont South.
See also List of places on the Victorian Heritage Register in the City of Whitehorse
References
External links
Official website Includes train and tram connections Link to Land Victoria interactive maps